Fateful Intervention
by Face of Poe
Summary: post-NJO Alternate Universe-takes place during Jacen's 5-year sojourn. This time though, some unlooked-for intervention lands Jacen on an unfamiliar planet, injured, amid people who know nothing of the rest of the galaxy and think Jedi are characters in children's stories; he must learn some needed lessons in humility and destiny to understand what has happened and where he is.
1. Prologue

**A/N:** An old repost from the Jedi Council Forums, this was a gift-fic for the lovely **Ceillean** who wanted a story featuring Jacen crashing on a remote planet where the Jedi are unknown and falling in love.

I warped that fun idea into a total post-NJO AU/reboot because, why not? So some direct references here to a lot of LotF and particularly FotJ story elements, and a random funny or two thrown in for good measure. Do enoy!

 **Disclaimer** : Shockingly, I don't own or profit from Star Wars. Dammit, Disney.

 **Prologue**

 _Kathol Rift_

Jacen Solo smiled reassuringly at the Aing-Tii monk, his guide Tadar'Ro, even as the growing sense of urgency in his mind made him impatient to be on his way. "I must go," he repeated, zipping up his flightsuit to his neck and tucking his helmet, unused in his long months among these strange Force-users, beneath one arm. "There's something… dark, something pained. It's calling to me. I have to find out what this disturbance is; lest it become a threat to the whole galaxy."

Tadar'Ro sounded wearily resigned, as his agitated pheromones were interpreted through his translation device that enabled him to speak Basic. "Many secrets are held in the Maw," he warned Jacen somberly. "Some… are not meant to be discovered."

"I'm sorry." He truly was. "This is too big, too dangerous."

"Even the most skilled among us cannot see a definitive future, Jacen Solo; but know now that your actions today may shape the futures of all."

"Is that not the burden many Jedi have borne for millennia?"

The Aing-Tii shook his head back and forth, an awkward gesture, a human affectation more than a natural motion. "Be wary of pride, Jacen Solo."

"Of course," the young Jedi bowed his head in chagrin. "I thank you for your hospitality and your teachings, Tadar'Ro- and for your wise warnings. And I'm sorry that I could not do more to help you settle the schism among your people. But you must understand," he spread his hands in a helpless gesture, "the galaxy is only just beginning to recover from one deadly threat. If there is another lying in wait, I _must_ find out, I _must_ be able to warn the Jedi."

Tadar'Ro watched as the dark-haired young man pulled his helmet on and leapt with one fluid motion to the topside of his craft. He held his hand up, palm outward in a sign of both thanks and farewell, and settled down into the cockpit of the starfighter. The monk lifted his own plated arm and watched solemnly as the craft lifted off of the rocky world and disappeared through the atmosphere, heading for space- and darkness- beyond.

"You play with the fates of many, Jacen Solo," the monk murmured sadly before turning and shuffling quietly along the path back towards the young Jedi's vacated abode.

X-X-X-X

 _Beyond the Veil_

"I thought we agreed- no intervention."

"You've seen what is to come to pass, should young Solo come into contact with the eternal one." Both turned to their elected leader of the century, who rested her head in one clawed hand. "Tyla?"

She was a long time in answering, even as the four high councilors watched her closely, awaiting her verdict to settle the split in the dispute. She was a long time in answering… but time was such an abstract concept in this realm that it mattered little, might have been minutes or hours, before she raised her head again and met the eyes of the other four steadily. A decision had been reached.

Her words were spoken evenly and with great care. "Much pain… anger… suffering… are to be found in Jacen Solo's future. Even our mortal brethren have seen the despair to come."

Varu glared pointedly around at them all. "Such tragedies are many-fold. Why should we violate our resolution of non-involvement for one boy?"

Ylin nodded wary agreement; Suwo looked unsure; Nali looked earnestly to Tyla and spoke quietly, urgently. "What have you seen, Tyla? You know what I know- that his actions will be the inadvertent catalyst to undoing our great pains at containing the evil that long ago threatened all in the mortal plane."

"What do you mean?" Ylin snapped.

Tyla let her eyes drift half-closed as she concentrated on the future, the future that would come to pass should Jacen be allowed to enter the Maw, to make contact with the eternal one. Images drifted before their eyes, some ghostlike and foggy, some sharper and clearer. Images of pain and death… of love and loss… of betrayal and sacrifice… of civil war.

And then one image, calm and peaceful, of the familiar oblong station… before it erupted into glowing white light and was consumed entirely. "The prison of the eternal one," Tyla murmured sadly. "The Jedi will be its undoing, through their ignorance to its purpose. In the effort to curtail one evil, they will facilitate the strengthening and unleashing of one that is far greater."

Varu sighed, but even the most adamantly opposed could not deny the folly in allowing these events to unfold, as they were destined on the current path. "Who would you choose then? Who is to be our next sacrifice to the mortal realm?"

Tyla shook her head. "It was agreed a millennium ago that no more were to endure that fate; I would not betray the memories of those who have gone before by subjecting another to that pain of separation from the ethereal plane. No," she said slowly, "we will not intervene in that realm, but shall bring Jacen Solo to ours."

X-X-X-X


	2. Chapter 1

**Part One**

 _Estel_

The pain was somewhat… abstract, at first. Almost as though, if he refused to pull himself further towards consciousness, if he just refused to open his eyes, it would diminish and let him sleep in peace once more.

 _Well that wasn't right_. His unfortunately awakening mind was beginning to note some inconsistencies with the situation, and he had the feeling that when he finally opened his eyes, he would note several more. Jacen was no stranger to pain, had learned to accept it… and for those times when it was too much, he had the Force to help ease it.

Today though, the Force didn't seem particularly inclined to help him, even as he felt it flowing through his body. The pain was sharp and intense, and as his awareness heightened, it became more concentrated in specific areas- his left shoulder, the right side of his head, the whole right side of his body felt like his ribs were on fire. He groaned.

A soft, hesitant voice broke through his pain-filled reverie. "He's waking up…"

"Quickly then." That voice was gruffer, male and rough.

"But shouldn't we-"

"It'll only be harder when he's conscious. Hold him."

 _That doesn't sound good_. Gentle but firm hands pressed against his right shoulder, the uninjured one, as a practiced hand slid underneath his pained left one. A premonition of pain made him force his eyes open at the same moment that a sickening pop accompanied a strange sensation in his left arm- a sensation that quickly, after a deceptive moment of stunned numbness, gave way to whole new levels of paralyzing pain.

"Ahhh…"

The gruff voice was back, speaking distractedly as the hands probed at his shoulder. "Better when you don't see it coming, son." The hands disappeared and moments later, a sharp sting in his arm quickly gave way to a steady dulling of the pain all over his body. "That should last him through the night," gruff-voice informed gentle-hands on his right side. "I'll leave you some pills for the next few days. When he's upright, you should wrap the shoulder tightly. If there are any complications, send for me or Mryssa; otherwise, I'll be back in three days, in the morning."

"Thank you, Healer Pollor." There was some rummaging, but Jacen couldn't bring himself to open his eyes again right away- the last time had been accompanied by severe unpleasantness, and blind ignorance seemed highly preferable at the moment. Heavy footsteps echoed in his ears, then the closing of a creaking door… and then softer steps came towards him again, and he steeled himself for further pain- and was pleasantly surprised when, instead, those gentle hands began carefully cleaning what had to be a wound on the side of his head with a damp cloth.

Deciding to brave visual awareness once more, he carefully cracked his eyes open… and found himself in an anticlimactically dimly-lit room that offered little clue as to where he was or what had happened to him. To his surprise, however, he did not seem to be in any sort of medical facility. The room was rustic and simple, sparsely decorated without being barren. Almost… primitive though, in its simplicity.

"You're awake." He focused his gaze upwards and was mildly taken aback by the beaming face, the bright eyes that shone in the soft light- light that bounced and shimmered against golden hair that hung straight and sleek over the shoulders of the young woman who was watching him with earnest concern. The concern deepened with his silence though, and she frowned lightly. "Can you understand me?"

"Y-yes," he got out, voice catching in his dry throat. She quickly caught on to his discomfort and poured him a small cup of water from a pitcher on the table beside the bed. He reached up with his good arm but she simply held it to his lips and helped him take a few small sips. "Thank you," he managed. As she set the cup down again, he took a second look around him, noting the finer details now: small room, small bed- simple cover woven from some natural material, not the synthetic fibers he was used to, growing up on Coruscant. Everything was wood, though not of a sort he immediately recognized- wooden furniture, wood floors, wood walls and ceiling. Lastly, he noted the relative silence of his surroundings; not the sort of absolute silence imposed by a Coruscanti force-field, that kept the noise of speeder traffic from keeping residents up all night. But the sort of silence that was broken by the occasional whirring insect, or unfamiliar animal cry.

"You have a name?"

Jacen blinked back up at the girl, wondering how hard he had hit his head. His thoughts were jumbled and unfocused. "Sorry. I'm Jacen. Jacen Solo." She smiled, but seemed unfazed by his famous- or infamous- name. "Who, uh… who are you?"

"Aeryn Freeson." She studied his appearance. "Are you a city boy?"

"Ah…" he frowned. "Sort of?" He'd grown up on Coruscant, after all, even if he'd seen little of it since his days at the Yavin 4 academy.

Pursing her lips slightly, he got the distinct impression that his admission was not a high recommendation in her mind. "You look like it," she concluded. "You're too pale for the countryside."

That assertion led Jacen to make two more observations. First was that the girl- Aeryn- did indeed bear signs that suggested she spent a great deal of time outdoors, working in the sun. Second, as he lifted his arm to compare the paleness of his skin, was the realization that he wasn't wearing any clothing.

Feeling suddenly exposed, despite the thick blanket that covered him from the chest down, Jacen smiled tightly and crossed his good arm over the blanket, as though to prevent anyone from taking it. "So, ah- where am I?"

"About ten kilometers outside of Stelias."

Fighting the scowl- after all, Aeryn did seem to be taking care of him, for the moment- Jacen rephrased the question. "I mean, what planet are we on?"

She looked as confused as he felt for a long moment, and then she laughed softly and reached out to gently probe against a bandage just above his right temple. "Just how hard _did_ you hit your head?" She grinned. "We may not be as fancy out here in the country, but you've certainly not left Estel altogether."

 _Estel? Never heard of it_. "Right," he said slowly, trying to conjure up some image of how he had ended up here. Considering his idea of what, precisely, 'here' entailed was limited to countryside and ten kilometers outside of a city he'd never heard of… it wasn't easy-going. Maybe he just needed a nice, long healing trance to re-center himself and remember what had happened to him since leaving the homeworld of the Aing-Tii monks.

Maybe Aeryn was thinking the same thing. "You probably need some more rest," she stated decisively. "Try not to move that shoulder too much, I'll wrap it for you in the morning."

He smiled weakly. "Thanks. And, uh… Aeryn? Where are my clothes?"

"Oh," she shrugged apologetically, "they were pretty torn up, and Healor Pollor needed to wrap your bruised ribs. But I'll have them patched up for you tomorrow." She hesitated. "Are you cold?"

"No," he assured her. "Just a little banged up and confused." _And exposed and vulnerable_ , he thought grumpily. Speaking of which… he glanced around the room, and looked at the table that held the water cup and pitcher- but couldn't find what he was looking for. "Actually, before you go- have you seen my lightsaber?"

For a moment, she was still, brow furrowed in consternation; and then her eyes widened and she scowled, eyes flashing, and she stomped angrily to the door. " _Well_ ," she muttered under her breath. "City boys are _so_ crude!" And she slammed the door.

Head foggy, shoulder aching, ribs bruised, Jacen stared in forlorn confusion at the place where she'd just disappeared.

"What did I say?" he asked uselessly into the encompassing silence.

X-X-X-X


	3. Chapter 2

**Part Two**

If Jacen was expecting a night spent in a healing trance to provide him with some sudden insights to his current predicament, he was sorely mistaken when he opened his eyes the next morning. A pale glow from dawn sunlight illuminated the room, and showed it to be just as rustically unfamiliar as it had been to him the night prior. For several minutes, he tried to make sense of how he got to be here, on this planet he'd never even heard of, but nothing was coming to mind. He'd left the Aing-Tii homeworld, set his course into the Maw… but there was little beyond that. Had he made some crucial error in navigation? Perhaps his X-wing would provide some insights into the matter, whenever he figured out what had happened to it.

A light tap on the door brought him back to the present and moments later, the girl who had spoken with him the night before… the girl he had somehow offended as she was leaving… stuck her head inside the room to check that he was awake.

Jacen smiled as politely as he could manage, hoping to quickly learn what had bothered her and then to make amends. At the moment, Aeryn was his only source of… well, of anything; information, comfort, food, shelter. "Good morning."

Her own reply was a little stilted. "Good morning." She held up a few things in her arms. "I have your jumpsuit. And I brought you some pain medication, and I can wrap your shoulder whenever you're ready."

"Oh, that probably won't be necessary."

Her brow furrowed quizzically. "It was a pretty bad dislocation…"

"Healing trances work wonders," he winked, and started to pull himself into a sitting position- and then collapsed back on the bad, groaning softly in pain, when he tried to put weight on his left arm.

If nothing else, the embarrassing display seemed to serve to lessen some of her animosity towards him, and her lips quirked as she hurried over to the bed and took a look at his arm. "Healing trances, huh?" she asked drily.

He didn't answer though; he should have had more than enough time to repair the worst damage to his shoulder, damage he couldn't remember receiving… and his ribs had felt fine upon his awakening, but some of that dull pain was starting to return with a vengeance, and he wordlessly accepted the small tablet from Aeryn and swallowed it with a big gulp of water from the cup still sitting by the bed. "Thanks," he muttered, feeling like a useless apprentice who lost his concentration midway through a levitation exercise. "So I don't suppose you could tell me how I ended up here?"

"Actually," her lips quirked, "I was going to ask you the same. We found you on the road, near the end of the lane."

"We?"

"My neighbors over on the next farm. Anyway, we thought maybe you'd been in some sort of fight, so we brought you inside and sent for Healer Pollor; he says your injuries look more like a blunt trauma, like you fell from a good height maybe."

 _Or made a really rough landing in my X-wing_. "And there's no sign of my ship anywhere?"

Aeryn blinked. "Come again?"

"My X-wing; it's a Tee-sixty-five Ex-Jay-Three Incom fighter."

"I have _no_ idea what you're talking about."

Suppressing his frustration was becoming more and more difficult as this went on. "I must have crash landed or something, smacked my head… but if that was the case, I couldn't have made it very far from my ship before I passed out…"

"I think maybe you need some more rest…"

"I just _had_ plenty of rest," he snapped a little more harshly than he intended, "now I need to figure out where I am and what happened to me!"

"I told you-"

"Yes, yes," he sighed, "I know- ten kilometers outside Stelias on Estel. The problem, Aeryn, is that I've never heard of either the city or the planet, and if I can just figure out where my X-wing is, the flight log might give me some idea of how I ended up in this backwater place."

If she found his words at all offensive, it was lost in the wide-eyed worry as she stared at him. "I think maybe I need to call Healer Pollor…"

"I think _I_ need to call the Jedi Council and warn them about the threat I sensed in the Maw."

Halfway to her feet, Aeryn paused and eyed him funnily. "The Jedi Council?"

"Yes!" he exclaimed in relief. "I need to warn the Jedi, and then see if they can help me figure out what's happening here!" She was still staring at him strangely, and he sighed and spoke slowly, as though explaining to a small child. "Aeryn, I'm a Jedi Knight."

Different places viewed the Jedi in different ways. Some people might be impressed to discover they had a Jedi in their house; others might view him with fear or suspicion, some might just be generally indifferent one way or another. Jacen expected any of those reactions, was prepared to deal with any of those reactions.

What he was _not_ prepared for was the fit of giggles that quickly overcame the young woman sitting beside his bed, a fit that did not abate for a good couple minutes. "A Jedi," she gasped, tears of mirth streaming down her face, "a Jedi who can't find his lightsaber!" He scowled. "I suppose you're from Coruscant-"

"Well, yes…"

"-and you had pet crystal snakes and rock lizards growing up-"

"Yes, actually, how did you-?"

"-and you've been gallivanting about, saving the galaxy from all manner of evil-doers?"

"Well," he smiled abashedly, trying to be modest, "I've certainly seen my fair share of action." The Yuuzhan Vong war was no picnic, after all.

A long minute passed during which Aeryn looked torn between amusement, concern, and uncertainty. "You're serious, aren't you?"

With a huff, Jacen eyed the water cup sitting beside his bed and extended the smallest amount of effort in the Force- and nothing happened. Frantic, he tried again, and still the cup did not budge. It made no sense; he could _feel_ the Force, just as he'd used it the night prior to go into a healing trance… a healing trance that had proven wholly ineffective at healing his injuries…

The horror was starting to set in. He could feel the Force, could even touch it… but was apparently unable to use it in any physical manifestation.

"Jacen?" He blinked back up at Aeryn and met her wide, blue eyes blankly, as he tried to make sense of anything. "I'm going to send for the healer again… I think you must have hit your head a little harder than we thought."

"But…" She stood, a sympathetic smile on her face.

Crossing over to the far side of the room, she knelt down and looked for something on a narrow shelf. After a moment, she grabbed it- and Jacen could _sense_ her success in the Force!- and came back to him, holding it out. "Here- you should take a look at this while I'm gone, my Jedi friend."

Sullenly, he watched her slip out of the room once more before looking down at the object she'd handed to him. It was square, relatively flat, and the front was a brightly colored picture of a young boy… holding a lightsaber. Brows furrowed in confusion and consternation, Jacen read the title: _Jedi Jax and the Planet of Chaos._ Flipping the cover over, Jacen realized that he was holding a book- such a rare sight given the modern preference for datapads and holograms- and it seemed to be a children's story, full of dramatic illustrations.

The further he read, his heart sank. Jedi Jax- who seemed to have an entire series of exciting misadventures- appeared to be from a legendary planet known as Coruscant, where the Jedi were the wise and just leaders who took care of all of the people. Aside from the name, it wasn't exactly an accurate depiction of the planet, even before the Vongforming during the war. For one thing, grass, water, and open space were in abundance.

So Aeryn thought he was a total amnesiac who was building new memories off of a children's book. Great. No problem.

Except it was a problem, at least until he could figure out how he'd gotten to Estel, and what had happened to his X-wing.

X-X-X-X

"…some kind of trauma…"

"…if the wound isn't that bad, I don't know what else…"

"…might snap out of it on his own, in time…"

Jacen sighed. "I can hear you, you know?"

Healer Pollor shot him a look over Aeryn's turned shoulder, shrugged, and glanced back down at the concerned girl. "…give it a few days before we start thinking about taking him into the city…"

His ears perked up. "The city? I would _love_ to go into the city, _they_ might have some clue as to where I crashed my X-wing. If nothing else, I might be able to hire transport _off_ this forsaken planet." Aeryn turned… and he actually felt bad about the mildly wounded expression in her eyes. "Sorry, no offense meant."

The two finished their conversation and in softer tones while Jacen stared about the room in boredom. Pollor had looked over his shoulder and wrapped it, so he was an arm short at the moment and forbidden from leaving the bed save to use the refresher. All in all, it was a wholly frustrating experience, because as long as he couldn't leave this little room, he had no way of beginning to investigate what had happened to him.

Finally, Pollor approached the bed and sat in the chair next to it, considering Jacen for a long moment over steepled fingers. "Jacen, Aeryn tells me that you think you're a Jedi."

He rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, and you think I'm making it up like some crazy barv."

"No," Pollor countered softly, surprising Jacen, "I don't."

"You don't?"

"Not at all," he spared a glance for the golden-haired girl who had moved to the far side of the bed to watch the exchange, biting her finger nails nervously. "I think you truly and honestly believe that you're a Jedi, that you're from a place called Coruscant, that you came here in some interstellar ship that must have crashed. But Jacen…" he leaned forward and spoke earnestly, "if that's even your name… it's apparent that you've suffered some sort of physical trauma, based on your obvious injuries. My guess is that you've also endured some sort of emotional trauma as well. Perhaps something pertaining back to your childhood, resulting in your mind receding into some fantasy world you created as a small boy, based in a popular children's tale."

Jacen stared at him blankly.

"It's not altogether so unbelievable as it sounds," Pollor patted his good shoulder sympathetically. "Our minds work in strange ways; and I've seen it in children before, when I was a student in Stelias. When a sibling or parent dies, or when one suffers some highly traumatic emotional abuse… we seek escape. And I don't know what's happened to you, but your mind found the escape that maybe you've always wanted, deep down, for yourself. So it fashioned its own reality, where not only have you escaped your personal issues, but you've escaped Estel altogether."

Shaking his head slowly back and forth, Jacen held up his good hand. "Wait, wait. You really have this all wrong. Just because you've never heard of Jedi here… _real_ Jedi," he emphasized, "doesn't mean they don't exist. We must be somewhere in the Maw, so it's not that unreasonable that you've been isolated from nearby systems for hundreds or thousands of years and-"

"And we speak the same dialect of the same language?"

"Well… I…"

"I'm sorry, son," Pollor shook his head. "The most we can do now is try to find out who you are, where you came from, and what happened to you."

Gritting his teeth, Jacen tried to keep his voice from a growl. "I know who I am and I know where I came from, and if I could only figure out what happened to me, I could be on my way _back_ where I came from and you could pretend like you'd never met me in the first place."

" _Jacen_ ," Pollor leaned forward again and sought his eyes carefully. "You're on Estel. You're from Estel. Space travel is a thing out of legends and fairy tales and children's stories."

X-X-X-X

He was advised to spend the next three days on bed rest. Halfway through day one, the boredom pulled him out of bed and out of the small room where he'd been staring blankly at the rough wooden walls for the past two hours. His ribs ached as he stood, but he pushed past the pain and set about exploring, wholly unsure of what he would find.

The answer was- not much. The entire house… more of a cabin, really… was small and functional. His makeshift sick room opened into a living area, with a kitchen and dining table on one side and a comfortable seating area with a fireplace on the other. A door near the kitchen probably led to another refresher, he suspected, and a door that was slightly ajar to his left seemed to open into a second bedroom. He risked a quick peek inside, but it was empty and darkened, though the room had a generally unused feel to it that surprised him.

A window beside the front door of the small abode drew his attention, and he pulled back a white curtain to peer outside. There wasn't much to see outside either; a path that was made up of dirt and pebbles ran down the length of the property and seemed to meet up with a larger road some distance ahead. On either side of the lane, green grass extended as far as he could see. A pasture, perhaps?

"You're up."

He turned sharply and saw Aeryn slipping in a door at the back of the cabin, laden down with a sack which she carried to the kitchen area and immediately began unpacking.

"How's your head?"

He scowled, but the irritation abated when she turned and he could see the teasing glint in her eyes. "I'm still a Jedi," he informed her drily. "The healer isn't going to haul me off and have me committed?"

"Are you dangerous?"

Blinking in surprise, he frowned. "Of course not."

"Then why should he?"

For a long moment, Jacen watched her busy herself in the kitchen, considering her quizzically. She was young, probably a year or two under his twenty-four years, and everything in the cabin suggested that she lived here by herself in normal circumstances. "Aeryn," Jacen approached her and spoke curiously, "why am I here?"

"I told you," she murmured as she dug through a cabinet looking for something, "we found you down by the end of the lane."

"You and your neighbors?" She nodded. "But why am I _here_?" he pressed. "Why not with them?"

"Oh," she turned in surprise. "I have the extra room."

"You live here by yourself?"

He sensed the slightest reservation, a bit of wistfulness as she answered, "Yes. I have for a few years now."

A young woman… a young and undeniably pretty woman… accepting strange and wounded men into her house, where she lived alone. Jacen was a bit astounded; it spoke a great deal to her compassionate trust- or perhaps to her trusting naïveté. "Well I appreciate your help," he told her sincerely. "And I'm sorry if I've been… difficult."

Her momentary melancholy disappeared as she grinned broadly. "Don't be; the Goodwins next door are totally jealous that they don't have a Jedi Knight living in their house for a few days." She gave him a lopsided smile that was a bit apologetic. "I really wish there was something I could do for you, Jacen…"

"Actually," he said hesitantly, "there might be." She looked dubious. "Hear me out," he chided her. "I've been thinking all day… I skimmed through some of those other children's books you have in there and it got me thinking… popular and lasting children's stories usually have a basis in some older or deeper mythology, right?"

"I guess…"

"Well," he continued reasonably, "then doesn't it stand to logic that the concept of the Jedi in your books comes from some other form of legend? And the way I see it… if I'm not crazy, reading up on some of those legends might provide me some clues as to how I got here like this. And if I _am_ crazy-"

Aeryn flushed. "No one thinks you're-"

"If I _am_ crazy," he repeated, "then for me to have such vivid memories of a life that never existed…" his voice caught as he felt like he was somehow betraying his family, his twin sister… Anakin… "surely I must have derived those impressions from something, right? Something more complex than _Jedi Jax_ ," he added wryly.

Her bright eyes shone in honest compassion and concern, and she sighed before turning back to the matter at hand which, Jacen finally realized, was making dinner. "If you really think it might help," she murmured, "I'll talk to Rowl next door; he might know where to look."

"Thank you."

X-X-X-X

Jacen spent the next two days learning all her could from Aeryn about Estel- its people, technology, government, social structure; and when he'd exhausted questions about the planet, he turned to more immediate matters and learned that Aeryn was part of a farming collective with nearby properties, something she'd inherited from her parents. Her mother had died of natural causes when she was fairly young; her father had only died three years ago after an accident with some heavy farming equipment. The then-nineteen-year-old Aeryn had spent some time with her neighbors- the Goodwins- before she'd become comfortable with her own self-sufficiency and relative isolation, in her parents' old cabin. Now, she tended a sort of animal Jacen had never heard of- wulins- and she provided a substantial quantity of the whole collective's milk doing so.

On the third day, Healer Pollor returned to check Jacen's injuries and remove the binding around his shoulder and his ribs. He also offered a half-hearted reprimand when he learned that Jacen had been up and about since the day after his last visit, but Aeryn vouched for the fact that he'd taken things easy while he was up and walking around. Lastly, he informed Jacen that he'd started an inquiry towards any missing persons named Jacen, or anyone fitting his physical description. Jacen just smiled tightly and thanked him.

On the fourth day, Rowl Goodwin came through and turned up at the door with four heavy books on subjects such as planetary mythology and local folklore. As he accepted the thick volumes, Jacen refrained from making a snarky comment about the superiority of datapads and benefits of digital storage in terms of weight and storage space. It seemed likely that Rowl would just laugh in his face and turn around and leave.

"So Aeryn says you're looking for origins of the Jedi story?"

Nodding, Jacen took up a seat at the table opposite the burly young man and cracked open the first book in the stack, glad to have full use of both arms back. "I'm particularly interested in the fine details," Jacen murmured as he scanned a table of contents that spanned three pages of the massive book. "The things that were used to build the children's stories- names of people, planets, technology…"

"Well," Rowl thumped one of the books on the old cover, "this is as good a place to start as any. Treat the books nicely, mind," he said pointedly, "these came out of old man Thurlan's storage cellar, they're rather old. If you still can't find what you're looking for…" he shrugged. "I guess you'll have to try the library in Stelias."

And as Jacen had learned, that would be an entire day's trek in and of itself. Despite the fact that the city was only ten kilometers away, possible methods of transportation included riding an animal called a yoxlen- slow… or walking- slower. Few people this far out in the country saw the need for motorized transport, though they did exist- they hardly ever left their farms, so there was no point in owning one.

With a heavy sigh and low expectations, Jacen flipped through to a potentially promising section and started reading.

X-X-X-X

The next week flew by in a whirlwind of routine. Aeryn woke at dawn every day, dressed, and went outside to feed the wulins; half an hour later, Jacen would make his way out to the living room to join her for breakfast, and then they would part ways for several hours, Aeryn to go about her farm work and Jacen to undertake further research. It was off to a slow start, and he'd found little that suggested promising leads.

On a sheaf of paper, he had a set of notes jumbled together with his thoughtful musings on his situation. He could accept that Estel had no knowledge of space-faring technology- but they must have had it at some point, or someone must have crashed on the planet before him and allowed for the blending of old Jedi lore into the planet's mythology. Supporting that idea was the fact that the only sentient life on Estel seemed to be humans; less supportive was the fact that the people spoke Basic with no discernible differences to how he spoke it, save a lack of technological terms. Surely a long period of isolation would have led to a branching off of language, or dialect at the very least?

Jacen idly sensed Aeryn's approaching presence and glanced at the time- it was earlier than she usually returned for lunch. And then he noticed that she seemed disquieted and… in pain. Hastily closing his book, he got to his feet as the back door opened. "What's wrong?"

She stood with one hand on the door knob, staring at him. "Excuse me?"

"You're hurt."

A look of confused apprehension flitted through her eyes, and then she drew her other arm around and displayed the nasty wound on her hand. "How did you know?"

Shrugging, he smiled slyly. "Jedi."

She shook her head and closed the door. "It's not bad; one of the wulins bit me."

"That happen often?"

Disappearing into the refresher off of the kitchen, she called out to him, "No, but one of the females- Haddi- got her leg trapped in the outer fence. I freed her but when I tried to look at her foot, she got touchy." She came back out and looked dejected. "She's limping."

"Here," Jacen hurried forward and took the bandages out of Aeryn's good hand. "Let me."

"You don't have to…"

"Hey," he grinned roguishly, "you've been taking care of me. I think I can repay you with a little first aid of my own."

He coaxed her into the chair he had just vacated and took her hand carefully in his; it was bleeding freely but didn't look too deep. "The bleeding probably won't take long to stop," he decided, unfurling the roll of bandage. "Antiseptic? Ah," he grabbed the ointment and dispensed some into a clean cloth. She hissed slightly when he used it to clean the wound and looked away. "Hey, it's not that bad," he murmured.

"I don't like blood."

That was fair, he supposed. Holding her wrist gently, he wrapped the bandage around her hand several times, until the red blood stopped seeping through the thin white material. For his part, Jacen missed synthflesh and bacta patches. "There," he admired his handiwork as he carefully tied the loose ends of the bandage strip over the wound to keep pressure on it and stop the bleeding. "You'll be ship-shape in a day or two."

She turned back and scrutinized his work discreetly for a moment, before lifting her eyes and smiling softly at him. "Thanks."

After a moment, Jacen became aware of the fact that he was staring into her blue eyes and grinning like an idiot. He coughed and looked away, motioning towards the back door. "You want me to take a look at your wulin?" Her brow furrowed quizzically, and he remembered that he'd never seen one before a week ago and had never come into close quarters with one in that week. "I mean- I'm pretty good with animals in general."

"Odd for a city-boy."

 _Oh_. She thought it was just another thing his mind was fabricating from some made-up existence. Swell. With a sigh, Jacen turned away and looked back down at his pages of notes. "Never mind."

"No," she laid her good hand on his forearm. "I'm sorry. I would… be grateful, if you think you can help."

Twenty minutes later, Jacen patted Haddi the wulin on the head as he stood from where he'd been kneeling and binding her front left lower leg, where she seemed to have twisted it in her frantic efforts to get free of the fence where she'd been caught. She tossed her head and bumped her long snout against his hand before skittering off to join the others at the feeding trough. Aeryn was standing several paces away, arms crossed over her chest, shaking her head. "I'm impressed."

"Me too," he admitted. "And I think I know why she was so skittish in the first place- your Haddi is pregnant."

"Really? How can you…?" Her eyes narrowed. "Never mind."

Jacen just grinned and shrugged. "Are you done for the day?"

"I can be," she nodded slowly.

"Good," he offered his arm. "We're going to make lunch a team effort today."

Laughing lightly, she slipped her arm through his and allowed him to lead her back into the house.

X-X-X-X

The next two weeks passed by in a whirl of activity. Rather than spending their days apart, Jacen joined Aeryn in her morning work, learning the ropes of her duties with the wulins as well as her periodic obligations that took her into the center of the collective where food stuffs were stored for the colder months and could be divvied out as needed. Otherwise, the whole system seemed based on good faith and trust- something relatively foreign to Jacen, after the tragedy of the Yuuzhan Vong war. Nearly every day, someone was stopping by Aeryn's to collect milk for the week, and no money ever changed hands; in turn, Aeryn made weekly rounds to collect bread, vegetables, and meat from their respective farms.

With her chores done hours earlier, Aeryn took the opportunity of extra daylight to show Jacen around the area. They hiked across fields and pastures, crossed little brooks and streams, meandered a wandering path through meadows and forests, and she would tell him about the animals they saw or heard, and he would try to come up with a close comparison to an animal with which he was familiar from his days on Yavin 4. And in the evenings, after making dinner together, Aeryn would help him with a couple hours of research, though he found that more and more, they spent those two hours talking amongst one another instead of reading and taking notes.

Their late-morning strolls got gradually longer and they started packing simple lunches to take with them. On the afternoon that marked the third week of Jacen's sudden arrival into Aeryn's life and her into his, they settled down in a shady spot by a brook two kilometers away from the house, on the property of another farm, to eat their lunch. As they ate, Aeryn told Jacen more about her childhood, and he sat back on his elbows and just watched her, a light smile playing across his mouth. There was a shine in her eyes when she talked about growing up with her father, a sort of reminiscent joy that made her seem innocently carefree.

"You never tell me about you," Aeryn pointed out softly when she finished her story. "I want to hear about your childhood."

To his credit, Jacen only felt a little bitter as he smiled wryly back at her. "Why would I? You don't even believe any of it really happened."

She shrugged and bit her lip. "Maybe the exact memories aren't right, but…" she looked away and fought for the right way to explain. "You were right about the animals. You were really good with Haddi, and you took great care of her. So maybe the impressions are still there, you know?"

It was certainly a way he'd never thought of looking at it. "Alright," he murmured, sitting up and picking idly at blades of grass by his feet, which were clad in a sort of soft leather shoe that he'd finally adopted instead of his heavy boots he'd been wearing when they found him. "I was born five minutes after my twin sister, Jaina. Our mother has spent most of her life as a politician, and our childhoods were sort of hectic as a result."

"Just one sister?"

He swallowed. "No," he managed. "We have… had… a younger brother. Anakin. He was not quite two years younger than us."

"Was?" she asked quietly.

"He, ah… he died about six years ago now, when he was just sixteen. He was wounded, in a battle… we were at war… and he knew he wouldn't survive, so he made a last stand, to give the rest of us time to get out." He looked up into her wide eyes. "You don't even know what war is, do you?"

"Only in stories. Estel is… not a violent place. Sure, there are bad people who sometimes do bad things, but… we live in peace."

 _These people would have been frighteningly easy fodder for the Yuuzhan Vong._ "You're lucky."

They fell into a reflective silence, as she seemed to intuit the fact that he didn't want to keep talking about painful topics. On the other hand, Jacen silently mused about the way Aeryn managed to talk to him as though she truly believed he came from a different planet, while at the same time being convinced that he was traumatized and suppressing his real memories. It spoke a great deal towards her empathy, her compassion.

"Jacen? There's a harvest festival tomorrow evening for the solstice. If you'd like to…?"

He smiled a bit sadly. "I'd love to go, of course. But… Aeryn," he sighed, "I've been imposing on your hospitality for three weeks now. I _know_ you didn't have that in mind when you took me in, and I hate to think that I'm causing any sort of imbalance in your collective community here, seeing as I'm not really contributing anything…"

She looked bemused. "Of course you're contributing; you help me every day." Laughing at his frustrated look, she began collecting the remains of their lunch to put back in the satchel. "Jacen, everything is very organized so we maintain sustainability. My farm is designed to hold up to four people and I've been living there alone for years; I can feed another mouth." A look of uncertainty passed quickly over her face. "But if you want to go, I'm sure we can-"

"No, no," he hastened to assure her, wondering vaguely in the back of his mind at the sudden dry-mouthed panic he felt at her words, "I didn't mean that at all. I just didn't want to seem like a bother who can't pull his own weight."

On the walk back home, they were mostly silent; but as they crossed a high meadow that overlooked the valley where Aeryn's farm and the Goodwin's farm lay, she drew close and cautiously slipped her hand into his, and relaxed noticeably when he held tight to it instead of withdrawing.

X-X-X-X


	4. Chapter 3

**Part Three**

The festival the following night was held on one of the properties that bordered the forest. It was a decent walk but a pleasant one on a warm and breezy summer evening, the longest day of the year, in honor of which the collective's harvest fest was taking place. And as the sun first began to dip below the rolling hills off in the distance, Jacen and Aeryn set about the trek at a leisurely pace, walking companionably side-by-side.

He kept sneaking glances at her when she wasn't looking, or when she was distracted while telling him about crossing this same path hundreds of times during her girlhood. As was fitting these people who lived so simply, Aeryn and everyone else he'd crossed paths with in three weeks dressed in plain and functional clothing, of generally subdued colors; he supposed that somewhere in their community, someone worked with textiles and supplied fabrics annually. In turn, he'd seen some of the warmer clothing they favored in the winter months and learned that much of it came from the fleecy coat that the wulins grew in the colder times. Every spring- several weeks before Jacen's arrival, in other words- Aeryn and any other farms with wulins sheared the animals and other people spent the summer and autumn seasons making blankets and cloaks.

These people certainly did not waste valuable resources.

The festival seemed to be a key exception to the rules of simplicity and moderation. Aeryn had shed her normal attire in favor of a floral patterned dress in a soft green that must have come from Stelias. When she came out of her room, she'd blinked up at him shyly from beneath her lashes as he looked at her in surprise.

"It was my mother's."

"You look beautiful." He then kicked himself inwardly for implying that she didn't _usually_ look beautiful- _where did that thought come from?_ \- but Aeryn seemed too caught up in the embarrassment of the compliment to notice. Even her hair defied tradition, pulled back in an elaborate plait instead of hanging long and straight in a golden wave around her shoulders.

She then nervously produced a set of clothing for him. "I thought you might like to dress more… locally… tonight." He started, and then looked down to the dark tunic and tan vest and leggings. "They were Rowl's, he outgrew them last year," Jacen eyed the vestments dubiously; the young neighbor man was decidedly bigger and burlier than he was. "He thought they might fit."

It wasn't a perfect fit, but close enough. Aeryn had then proceeded to tame his hair that had already been unkempt from years of isolation and travels, cutting his unruly bangs back from his eyes and smiling softly at him with a trace of dry humor. "There you are."

And so he found himself groomed and dressed up, heading with surprising ease of mind to a gathering of a bunch of people who were mostly strangers. Undoubtedly, in the nearly four weeks since Aeryn had taken him in, everyone in the locality knew his story, and two weeks ago it might have bothered him that he would be facing dozens of people at once who all thought he was suffering from traumatic delusions.

Now though- maybe it was because of Aeryn's sweet compassion to his circumstances, the way she queried him about a life she didn't know could truly exist- he found that he just didn't care as long as she was by his side. And much as she had done the afternoon prior, he found himself reaching for her hand, and he tried to suppress the silly grin as their fingers interlocked with a natural ease.

A vague place in the back of his mind kept trying to jump up, to emphasize what a bad idea it was for him to develop an attachment to this girl, to this place… but Jacen shook it off every time the thought tried to rear its ugly head. There was something about these people, who lived so simply but in such contentment… who lived so _peacefully_ , in a galaxy that had seen far too much war in recent years; how could his appreciation of that be condemned? And anyway- who would be there to condemn it in the first place?

Until he learned anything about how he'd gotten here, it seemed that he would be stuck for the foreseeable future- and that thought didn't particularly bother him as it perhaps should have. He missed his family, of course, and friends he had left behind, but he couldn't help but feel that, if he were to stuck stranded somewhere… this was the best place for it.

X-X-X-X

"Jedi Jacen," a low voice murmured as a body slid onto the bench next to him. "How are you?"

Offering him a sardonic toast with a cup of some sort of local brew that his father would have found disappointingly lacking in real alcohol content, Jacen's lips quirked in wry resignation. "Healer Pollor," he nodded in acknowledgement, "I am… quite well, actually. All healed up. Still a Jedi though," he added after a moment's consideration.

"Ah, yes- how goes your research on the matter?"

"Utterly slowly."

The healer chuckled softly. "And what is it, precisely, that you're looking for?"

He hesitated; but there was no use hiding the truth. "An indication of when someone stumbled across Estel in the past, allowing for the infusion of Jedi lore into your local mythologies. If I can find a reference to a definitive historical time period… a battle, a famous person… it could give me a clue of when to look back in your planetary history. It's a long shot, I know- but someone was here before me, at _least_ once, and I want to know who has gone to such lengths to keep the people of your planet ignorant of the rest of the galaxy."

Pursing his lips slightly, Pollor sat back and crossed his hands over his slightly protruding stomach. The two of them sat in silence for a while, watching the festivities around them- kids were dashing about playing tag games, some older children were sitting around a bonfire, talking, telling stories, roasting bits of meat and vegetables. Some young couples- teenagers, young adults- broke away from the main group and took relaxing strolls through the nearby wood, arm-in-arm. As had happened countless times throughout the night, Jacen found his gaze automatically searching for Aeryn, who seemed to be making the rounds to talk to- literally- everyone. Jacen had met several of the people here before today, on their various treks around the area, and most of the rest had been introduced to him upon their arrival, but he was struggling to keep up with names and faces.

Pollor followed his gaze to where Aeryn was talking and laughing quietly with a young couple who might have been the Dolemans. "Aeryn's a special girl." Jacen looked at him curiously. "She's always been a little different… very keen, perceptive… and she's smart and sweet."

"I've noticed," Jacen agreed softly.

"Her mother died when she was four; and as an only child, she became so close with her father, growing up. He raised her entirely on his own, taught her everything he could about tending their property and the animals during the day, spent the evenings teaching her to read and write, some history, her numbers…" he let out a long sigh. "Life has an odd way of being cruelest to the least-deserving people, Jacen Solo. And after Aeryn's father died- three years ago this week- everyone around here took an interest in her, helped her out as much as possible. She was grown but still so young, and we all sort of adopted Aeryn and made sure she wasn't wanting for anything.

"And one day she just decided it was time to pick up and carry on, and she went back to her farm to live by herself and do things just as her father taught her. And I'm not sure I'd say she's lived a happy existence in the years since, but a content one at the very least. But she's never joined us for gatherings like this since her father died the week of the harvest three years ago."

Jacen blinked in surprise. "But…"

"Yes," he nodded, "but she's here now. And everyone here thinks it's great that she's finally come back- everyone except me." His words took a moment to catch up with Jacen, and when they did, he turned and stared in mildly outraged confusion. The healer just chuckled mirthlessly though and held up a hand. "Now wait, let me explain- three and a half weeks ago, I expected you to spend a couple of days with Aeryn, heal up, and be on your way. The next day, when she summoned me back about your little… Jedi problem… I expected that you'd stay with her a few more days, until you could be comfortably moved, and then she'd ask me to take you while you sorted out your head."

He sighed. "And then I hear that you've got Rowl running down books for you; another week after that, I hear that you're helping Aeryn do her work, that she's taking you on walks to show you around the collective. And I see her here tonight, and I know that it's because of _you_ that she's here. In three weeks, you've drawn her out more than the rest of us have done in three _years_."

Glancing again to the young girl, Jacen asked testily, "And that's _bad_?"

"Right now, no. But it will be when you leave." Jacen opened his mouth, thought about it, and then clamped it shut again, a wave of guilt coursing through him, a sudden sick feeling in his gut; the healer saw it all too well. "You see?" he asked. "You've devoted hours since you got here looking for a way out, even as you've let yourself develop an attachment to her. You know as well as I do that your stay here can only end painfully for her."

"That's not necessarily true," Jacen whispered, but even he didn't believe the words as they emerged. What could he do? Take her to Coruscant with him, when he figured out how to go back home? Could he even justify subjecting someone from a place like this to the chaos, the pain, of the rest of the galaxy? When she'd lived in peaceful isolation for twenty-two years?

Pollor eyed him disdainfully. "One day, Jacen Solo, you'll figure out who you are again. And when those memories come back to you-"

"When those memories come back, they can't replace the ones I've made here, with her!" he countered hotly- and then froze.

It was the first time that he had humored the idea that he was, in fact, suffering from amnesia.

Of course, he didn't truly believe it- he was Jacen Solo, Jedi Knight… son of a Chief of State, son and nephew to heroes of the Rebellion… twin brother to the best damn pilot in the galaxy, older brother of a hero who had given his life far, far too young. He knew who he was.

But looking around at these people… these people who were so content in their simple ways, who accepted him, an outsider, without question, who knew he believed himself to be a figure out of children's stories… but who never once judged him for it, who just looked at him with mild curiosity before asking how he was enjoying his time with them. Looking around at these people, Jacen wondered if this was what humanity should have been.

And then he wondered if he wanted to leave at all.

For three years, he had traveled the galaxy and studied the Force with all manner of beings, who viewed that power with different philosophies, who utilized it in different ways. For three years, he had not had contact with his parents or his sister, save the occasional brush in the Force to reassure himself of their wellbeing. For three years, he had willingly chosen exile- and that was all the difference, wasn't it?

It wasn't about being on Estel; it was about being on Estel against his will and with no way to leave. It wasn't that he _wanted_ to leave- it was that he wanted the option to be available to him whenever he deemed it time to move on.

"You're absolutely right," he found himself murmuring. "I've been using her with no thought for the future."

The healer nodded, looking sympathetic now that his point had been made. "It's probably for the best if you-"

"Ah," Jacen held up a hand, "I know what I need to do." He glanced around at the dozens of semi-familiar faces. "I wonder if you can tell me who is old man Thurlan?"

X-X-X-X

He was quiet and brooding on the walk back to Aeryn's property late that night, saying little as they wound their way across the fields, crossed streams, eventually through the pasture that led to the front of her cabin-like house. She spoke some, but kept her comments brief, apparently in-tune with his disquiet.

When they entered the small abode, chilled by the night air, Aeryn set to making them some hot tea while Jacen built a fire in the small fireplace opposite the kitchen. She wordlessly passed a mug over to him, slipped off her shoes that were damp with dew from the grass, and sat on the rug in front of the fire, warming her toes as she blew on her hot drink.

After a moment of hesitation, Jacen joined her on the floor, sitting close by her side so their shoulders were almost touching. "There's something I want to tell you," he murmured quietly, and felt her stiffen slightly in response.

"Yes?"

Taking a deep breath, he stared into the flames. "I'm sending the books back with Rowl tomorrow; I don't want them anymore."

Her surprise was visible on her face- and even if it hadn't been, he could sense it in her. "Why? What about your research?"

Setting his mug down on the hard floor, he turned slightly to face her better, taking in her earnest, wide eyes, the youthful innocence reflected so keenly in them. "Part of being a Jedi," he told her seriously, "is about patience, acceptance… about listening to the Force. And right now, the Force is telling me that I need to be patient and accept my situation, that answers will present themselves in due course, that I can't force them to come to me.

"But more importantly than that," he slowly reached out a hand and brushed her cheek softly, and her eyes drifted closed in response, "I'm at peace here, on Estel… with you. For the last three years, I've been looking for something without even realizing it, and now that I'm here… I think that something was you. Whether or not you believe it, Aeryn, the Force brought us together for a reason- I know it did."

"I believe you," she whispered. Setting her own mug down, she met his intense gaze shyly, and blushed fiercely when he leaned forward and kissed her cheek softly.

They spent that night in front of the fire, Jacen's arms wrapped around Aeryn who was warmly cocooned in a thick blanket, looking tender and innocent… almost vulnerable… as she drifted to sleep. Brushing loose locks of hair off of her forehead, he leaned down and placed one more kiss gently on her brow and murmured, "Sweet dreams."

X-X-X-X


	5. Chapter 4

**Part Four**

A banging noise jolted them awake; the level of light streaming in the windows suggested it was still rather early.

Jacen groggily disentangled himself from Aeryn, who struggled stiffly to her feet and threw the blanket on the nearby chair, reaching down to straighten the dress she hadn't gotten around to changing out of the night prior. Looking mildly harried, she went to the door and opened it while Jacen was stretching his arms out over his head to get out the kinks after hours spent lying on a thin rug on a hard floor. The fire was just a smoldering lump of embers.

It only took seconds from when she opened the door for Aeryn's surprise to come flooding towards him through the Force; it was quickly followed by an almost fearful consternation, and when she closed the door and turned back to him, there was a deadly seriousness in her eyes. "You have to wash up, get dressed; you've been summoned."

"What? Summoned where?"

"The Celestial Temple."

His thoughts ground to a sudden, jolting stop. "Wait- the _what_?"

"The Celestial Temple- it's on the outskirts of Stelias."

"But… I…" he stared at her uncomprehendingly. "You mean to tell me that you think Jedi are a myth, but you people believe in Celestials?"

She eyed him strangely. "'Believe in'?" she repeated. "We do not 'believe in' them, they dwell among us. They are the Guides."

"Why didn't you _tell_ me this?" he demanded, eyes wide.

"You never asked," she returned, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

He opened his mouth to argue, but realized that she was entirely correct; of all the things he asked about the planet, modern religion was never a topic they'd covered, and he was guessing that a group called 'Guides' who lived in a temple were religious leaders, first and foremost. And in all the time he'd spent researching ancient mythology and folklore… a place where the Celestials would have turned up in research back on Coruscant…

Apparently they weren't so ancient here. Perhaps they weren't even the same legendary race that had disappeared from the galaxy-proper dozens of millennia ago; maybe the name was just a coincidence.

Somehow, in light of everything else- Jacen doubted it.

"What if I just… didn't go?"

She sounded a shade shy of scandalized. "You're been summoned!"

"Well… you're coming with me, right?"

She looked unsure. "I was not summoned."

"Right." He strode to the door and wrenched it open. Four well-dressed guards stood still and silent, two on either side of the path- at the end of which was a speeder that might have belonged in an antique museum on Coruscant. "Aeryn's coming with me."

A man on the right side- tall, straight and regal, dressed in greens and golds- closed his eyes a moment and then eyed him pointedly. "The girl may come as far as the temple."

"And you'll make sure she gets back home, right?" Jacen pressed.

"Yes," he answered stiffly. "Come; you are expected, Jedi Solo."

X-X-X-X

In the nearly four weeks on Estel, Jacen had grown accustomed to the simplicity, to the idea that a kilometer was the distance of a reasonable walk, to the idea that the ten kilometers to the city of Stelias was not a light undertaking.

Consequently, riding in a real speeder- if an old one- made the distance fly by alarmingly quickly. And in the few minutes they had, with their hands clasped tightly as they sat side-by-side, Aeryn spoke lowly and hurriedly to relay all she could about these 'Guides.'

"They're just that," she fought for the right words to explain. "They work together with the leaders from time to time, but they rarely decree, though they have absolute authority to do so, if they wished. But they're secretive too; no one ever actually sees them."

Jacen was beginning to have a very bad feeling about this. But if nothing else, he sensed he was about to get some answers to questions that had bothered him for weeks now.

"If you never see them, how do you know they're really there?"

"I-"

She was spared from answering as they turned a bend in the road and the temple came into view, the city framed picturesquely another kilometer beyond it. It was nothing like Coruscant; really, it was nothing like any city Jacen had ever seen before. The buildings were not tall, maybe five or six stories at their highest, the roads leading into Stelias were tree-lined boulevards along which people either rode in speeders or, more commonly, walked between the city and small hamlets which extended almost as far out as the temple, down winding lanes that veered off of either side of the road.

The temple, by comparison, was positively breathtaking. It wasn't particularly tall either- the main body of the structure was formed of three concentric circles in ziggurat style, and a number of smaller buildings sat nestled among tall trees on a sprawling complex. Jacen suspected they were dormitories for the guards, like the ones who stoically escorted them through the open gates of the complex.

His voice caught in his throat as the speeder came to a halt at the base of the temple. One of the guards opened the door on his side of the speeder and he got out; Aeryn made to follow, but the guard blocked her path. "Only Jedi Solo may continue."

He whipped around and met her fearful gaze. Attempting a reassuring smile, he gently shoved his way past the guard again and knelt on the ground by the side of the vehicle, taking Aeryn's hands in his. "Don't worry about me," he urged her. "I'll be fine."

"The High Council awaits you," the guard informed him tonelessly.

"Just a minute!" he exclaimed. "Aeryn," he turned back to her, trying to suppress the awful sensation in his heart that, when he released her hand, when he turned back to enter the regal building… she would be gone forever. "I…"

He swallowed. "I'll see you soon, okay?"

She nodded, eyes betraying the doubt she felt over his words. Cupping her face gently in his hands, he leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips, and he felt her tremble as he held the kiss for three slow seconds.

And then hands were on his arms, pulling him back away from her, and something inside him tore as he saw tears well in her eyes… but then the door was being shut once more and she disappeared from sight and he couldn't help but feel that he'd just watched a vitally important moment pass by without doing what he should have, without _telling_ her what he should have.

But as the hands on her arms steered him around to face the steps leading up into the temple, he knew that it was too late.

Their footsteps echoed ominously around the stone corridors as he was guided on a winding path that seemed to lead both inward and upward. The halls were empty, but he could feel the silent energy pulsing through them, could feel the power wielded by those who awaited him above, and he knew that, whatever mystery lay behind these Celestials, these Guides… they were very strong in the Force.

At last, after what seemed like hours of dragging his feet up the rising path… hours of walking away from the one person he wanted by his side… the corridor leveled out and ended with a single, narrow doorway, though the only barrier separating them from whatever lay beyond was a shimmering silver veil. He stood, staring at it for a long minute, until the tall man by his side motioned him forward. "You alone are to pass Beyond, Jedi Solo. This is where we part ways."

He took a step forward but then turned. "And you're taking Aeryn back home, right?"

The guard's eyes drifted closed a moment, and he answered, "She is already nearly there."

Nodding, not bothering to ask how he'd known it, Jacen took another careful step towards the dividing barrier. He impulsively reached out to touch it, and found it almost fluid under his fingers, like he was touching water that floated in mid-air. He turned once more back to the guard- and found that he had silently disappeared, leaving Jacen alone.

With a deep breath, he steeled himself- and passed Beyond.

It was dark. All-encompassing, suffocating darkness.

He was about to open his mouth, to demand answers, but a gravelly female voice, heavy with authority, rang out from all sides at once. "Come forward, Jacen Solo." He took three slow, hesitant steps. "Stop."

"Who are you?"

"You already know the answer to that question, Jacen Solo."

"The Celestials." There was an affirming silence. "The Celestials disappeared from the galaxy thousands of years ago."

"But not from existence," the voice reproved.

He hesitated. "I do not understand."

"Do you imagine the mortal realm in which you live is the only plane in which life can thrive?"

"I'm still not sure I…"

A harsh laugh, wholly lacking in humor, broke in to the exchange; the room remained oppressively dark. "The boy is too dense for your cryptic ways, Tyla."

"Peace, Varu." The voice turned gentler, as though lecturing a small child on a simple matter. "Our history, Jacen Solo, is a tragic one. The earliest of our kind, the builders, the Architects- they saw evil in the galaxy and vowed to end it. Conquerors, slavers… those who drew power unto themselves for the purposes of ruling others… they were shown little mercy. Those who could not be defeated were imprisoned. But what prison could hold the physical manifestations of evil?"

"The Maw," Jacen murmured.

He thought the voice sounded slightly pleased at his deduction. "The Maw," she agreed. "Other, less infamous examples in the far reaches of space- what you would call 'anomalies,' methods of trapping expanding empires so they might turn inward and collapse upon themselves in their isolation." She sighed. "The Maw was the last; but it was also the first, was the first project undertaken to imprison the eternal one."

Jacen frowned, nonplussed. "The 'eternal one'?"

"A creature undefined. Evil trapped in physical form. It was the work of millennia to first conceive of the means to trap the dark energies into a single form, and then, when we discovered that even then, the darkness was not to be defeated, to build the prison to hold it, isolated, unreachable by the rest of the galaxy and unable to extend its slinking tendrils outwards, beyond the cluster.

"But we sacrificed much, Jacen Solo; a schism arose among us as we violated our own principles, as we relied on and exploited the labor of others, as we sacrificed the freedom of a few for the good of many. And it was decreed that, once our work with the eternal one was finished, we were to leave the galaxy and move into the Beyond, where we could still watch the galaxy and intervene, if necessary- but at a terrible cost."

"What do you mean?" he breathed, enthralled.

Her voice became sad, wistful. "There is a life-force that binds us, Jacen Solo, to this realm, to the Beyond. To send one of our kind back to the mortal plane severs that bond. The pain is said to be excruciating."

Jacen swallowed heavily. It sounded an awful lot like how he felt when Vergere had stripped him of the Force during the long months of his Yuuzhan Vong captivity.

"It is the price we paid, for overstepping our bounds," she continued. "A reminder to violate our concordance of noninvolvement sparingly, and only at times of great need. And we have adhered, have sent few and only those who were willing. And nearly a millennium ago- the last to leave our plane did so on the condition that none further were to be subjected to the horror.

"And so," she concluded heavily, "rather than going to you… we brought you to us."

He blinked. "Why? And why the twenty-six day limbo?"

"Have you not yet figured it out, Jacen Solo? Is your pride still too great?" He just shook his head, uncomprehending. "Think to what Healer Pollor told you."

"What? That I was suppressing traumatic memories?"

"Did you never stop to consider that there may be some truth to his words?"

He felt like the air had been knocked out of him. "No…" he muttered. "I _know_ who I am," he insisted harshly.

"Of course you do- Jacen Solo, son to a Chief of State, son and nephew to heroes of the Rebellion…"

"Get out of my head."

"What you never accounted for, what the healer could never know- was that your trauma was not hiding memories of your true past; it was hiding memories of your first meeting with us, here, in the temple."

His mouth went dry. "I don't believe you."

"Twenty-seven days ago, you stood where you now stand, you listened to this same history of the Celestial race, asked the same questions…"

"You're wrong."

"And then you asked- 'why me?'"

The question had, indeed, been right at the front of his mind during the whole exchange, as he waited for a reasonable window in which to ask it. But now… he really couldn't, could he? It was petty, but now he would merely be proving her right, wouldn't he?

"It does not matter," the voice assured him. "We know your thoughts; the answer is very simple- the path on which you found yourself, upon taking your leave from Tadar'Ro, could end only in despair- for you, for the ones you claim now to love, for countless innocents in the galaxy."

"Because of what you imprisoned in the Maw?"

"Yes."

"Nothing is permanent," he found himself arguing. "One day, it will escape."

"Yes," she acknowledged again. "But it is not to be you who sets things into motion."

Again, he fought from asking the question- but surely they already knew it to be on the tip of his tongue? "So what will happen? If I persist and continue onwards?"

"You will die."

"I'm not afraid of-"

"By your sister's hand."

Any shock he'd felt up until this moment was nothing compared to the punch to the gut that was her assertion. For a minute, he stood in shock, breathing heavily. "I don't… I can't believe you," he shook his head fervently, forgetting the darkness encompassing him in his passion. "I can't believe that anything would drive Jaina down a path of darkness. She skirted it once; she'll never touch it again."

Total silence reigned for another minute- until another gruff laugh cut through the blackness and hit him like another blow. "The boy really is hopeless. It is not your sister who will fall, Jacen Solo, but yourself. And as the Sword of the Jedi, she will sacrifice a piece of herself for the thousands, millions, who suffer under your reign as Sith."

With a strange sort of detachment, it struck Jacen as suddenly more believable that this conversation had led to an abrupt mental decline four weeks ago. He spoke through numb lips, voice shaking. "Who are you? I want to see you, I want to see who claims to see so far and so vividly."

The light was sudden and blinding.

He blinked several times, trying to adjust. As the spots cleared away from his vision, he took in first his surroundings- a round room, almost like a small version of the old Jedi Council chambers; five low seats were arranged, perfectly equidistant from one another, forming a pentagram in which he stood at the center. And then he looked at the creatures sitting in those seats.

Celestials.

He'd expected something tall and regal, creatures with mystery behind their eyes, beings unknowable to the mere mortal.

What he saw instead were short, less than a meter. They each had clawed, tridactyl hands and feet. Their faces were wrinkled, wizened, with large, deep set, dark eyes and huge, protruding, bat-like ears that stuck straight out from either side of their heads.

And they were green.

He couldn't help himself; he laughed. It was ridiculous, all of it, and this merely compounded the absurdity. "Wait," he gasped, trying to curtail the laughs that continued to slip past his lips, "wait- you're telling me…

" _Yoda_ was a Celestial?!"

"He was our last sacrifice to your world, yes," the one directly in front of him inclined her round head slowly, her ears bowing in with the motion.

"But you're immortal."

The being to her right, the same who continued to ridicule him, shook his head and glared angrily. "Haven't you been listening, boy? Our life-force is bound to this plane now."

"Peace, Varu," the leader sighed again.

"And aren't you all supposed to talk all backwards?"

Varu's head landed in a clawed hand and he shook it back and forth mournfully. "I told you- _I told you_ … Tyla, can we please just…?"

"No," Tyla interrupted him gently before turning back to Jacen. "Yoda might have… ah… lost a wager a few thousand years ago… and as a result, agreed to use backwards syntax for five millennia…"

Someone else grumbled from across the circle. "And _no_ amount of persuasion would get him to drop it when he crossed over. I think he liked the thought that everyone would think that _talk like this, we do_ forever after…"

Tyla held up her clawed hand and shook her head wearily. "There are far more important considerations, right now," she eyed Jacen sternly.

"The future is not a book," Jacen countered somberly. "No one can read it as definitively as you claim."

"None in _your_ existence, no."

"In _my_ existence…" he stared around at them all, took in their knowing and subdued expressions, and felt the blood drain from his face. "What is this then?" he demanded. "Are you saying… this isn't real? The weeks I've spent on Estel…?"

The Celestial on Varu's other side considered. "This realm cannot be defined in terms of your own, Jacen Solo," he told him solemnly. "It is as real to the people you've met as Coruscant is to you; but it is as unknowable to the people of Coruscant as Coruscant is to those who reside here."

"And me?" he demanded, anger rising steadily. "What about me?"

"You have been granted a temporary crossing."

 _Temporary_. "I have to leave," he surmised flatly.

"Is that not what you want?"

The mocking challenge in Varu's voice echoed back in Pollor's accusations of the night before… and drove a painful blade right into his heart. "I… I only wanted to know I could," he admitted in a whisper. "I don't want to go yet."

"But you have to," Tyla informed him gently. "Your allowance is at an end; you got what you came here for."

" _I_ came here for nothing!" he cried. "You brought me here against my will! And when I wasn't ready to hear what you had to tell me, you left me with _her_ , and just when I realized…" his voice stuck in his throat, emerging as a half-sob. "Just when I realize how much she means to me, you're forcing me to go? Without even a goodbye? Without telling her that I… that I love her?"

Tyla met his angry stare evenly. "Sacrifice, Jacen Solo- is that not the burden many Jedi have borne for millennia?"

He wiped furiously at the single tear that escaped onto his cheek, not oblivious to the fact that she was echoing his own sentiments to Tadar'Ro back to him. " _You_ did this," he accused. "You knew I would grow attached, you waited for just the moment when it happened, and then you tore it out from under me."

"Yes. It is a lesson in humility, Jacen Solo. A warning that you are not in control."

"And you are?"

"No," Tyla blinked in surprise. "The Force guides us… it can even tell us what will come to pass… but we cannot control it. Aeryn Freeson was selected as the one who could teach you that; did you not learn it last night? Did you not finally understand that patience, that listening to the Force, were the proper paths? Did you not finally realize that you cannot make your own destiny?"

"But I can change it."

"You are at a crossroads; the horror you will become, should you enter the Maw, is nothing to the evil that will be released as a consequence. It will be unintentional; it won't be of your making. But it will happen- and the galaxy is not yet prepared."

He sighed and closed his eyes. "I understand."

"I am glad; now come, Jacen Solo- it is time."

X-X-X-X

His instructions were explicit- _do nothing_. It was strange, to sit in the cockpit of his X-wing again, but to be forbidden from touching any of the controls. Under normal circumstances, he might have felt apprehensive, nervous, to surrender his life into the hands of unseen beings.

But now, at this moment- his grief was too strong for him to give it a second thought.

A small part of his mind was still trapped in the horror of the idea that a single journey into the Maw could set into motion a chain of events that would lead to him becoming Sith, Jaina striking him down, and this eternal evil being released from its millennia-old prison. And he had no trouble imagining that the horror he felt could have driven him to forgetting the whole thing, as the Celestials claimed he had done four weeks ago. It probably would have again, had his mind been less occupied by other matters, more immediate matters.

Aeryn.

He loved her. He'd tried to say it, just before they were torn apart for the last time, but the words had caught in his throat.

Now he'd never get the chance.

His life was the stuff of fairy tales for the people of Estel. And Estel was entirely inaccessible to him without further action from the Celestials- and he was reasonably sure that he'd just used his quota of supernatural intervention. And Aeryn was tied to her plane, could only leave it at the cost of terrible pain, pain he'd never dream of asking her to endure if he even _could_. Which, of course, he couldn't.

She was gone; for the rest of his life, he'd have only the memories of long walks and picnics, of her slipping her hand unsurely into his… of her smiling face as she watched him tend her animal's wounded leg…

Of a night spent holding her in front of a fire, neither knowing that it would be their last hours spent in one another's company… of that last gentle kiss before he was forced away from her, before she was sent back to her life of simple isolation…

Jacen vaguely had the impression of his fighter flying through a black hole; he didn't care.

He rested his head against the seat and wept.

X-X-X-X


	6. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Coruscant.

Longtime galactic capital; devastated by the Yuuzhan Vong efforts to convert it in the image of the lost Yuuzhan'tar; now a hodgepodge of chaos as the planet was slowly revived. Some districts were still crushed, gigantic buildings collapsed in around themselves, yorik coral growing rampant over the ruins.

The process of rebuilding was slow-going, and by necessity, had begun in the Senate district. In nearly four years now since the planet had been reclaimed by the Galactic Alliance, much of the center of government had been revitalized. Some of the destruction had been slowly cleared away; most of it was simply crushed down to the planet, overtop the bedrock, overtop millennia's worth of construction ruins as the city simply grew upwards. Countless bodies had been recovered, incinerated, all of them in severe states of decay. Millions more were now just part of the planet, bones crushed amid the duracrete and transparisteel.

The pride of the reconstruction committee, the new Senate hall was already beginning to take shape; two kilometers away, the lower half of the Jedi temple was now open and functional, across an open plaza from the completed building where the Chief of State's executive offices now sat. Cal Omas was purportedly thriving in the role.

Jacen didn't care about any of it.

It was all so bleakly unfamiliar, as he guided his craft towards the half-completed Jedi temple, following landing instructions towards the lower hanger, maneuvering carefully between buildings to get there. Even as he set the fighter down, popped the canopy, and looked around… it was oppressive, the newness of everything, made him feel like an outsider… made him feel like he didn't belong and that he never had.

Maybe he'd go inside and just discover that nobody knew him at all- that his entire life among the Jedi was just a figment of his imagination. Just like Aeryn and Pollor and all the others on Estel thought.

The illusion was shattered the instant he took his first step into the cool stone corridors. An oncoming presence was rushing towards him, the excitement bubbling up, and he couldn't help but smile as he was practically tackled by his twin sister.

"Jacen!" She clung to him fiercely. "I just heard you were here, Master Katarn said you requested landing clearance… you're back!"

He pulled back slightly and held her at arm's length. Three years had wrought subtle change on his sister. Something in her eyes, in the set of her jaw, spoke to heightened maturity. A gentle exhaustion suggested she'd found herself with plenty of responsibility to be getting on with in the tumultuous days of the reconstruction.

"I'm back," he acknowledged quietly. "I'm a little surprised to find you here, actually."

She grinned. "I've been granted a quick reprieve from hunting down smuggling chiefs and criminal warlords." She shrugged. "Jag's here for diplomatic purposes; we managed to coordinate schedules for once. He leaves in the morning though."

"You're still seeing him then?" She hesitated. "What?"

Flushing, she glanced down a moment. "Yes, we're still…" she let out a huff of frustration. "I don't know. Maybe it's just the time apart. We just haven't been connecting as easily as we used to."

He wasn't really sure what to say to that, so he changed the subject. "How are mom and dad?"

"Uh," she sighed, "frustrated. Omas keeps sending them to every which corner of the galaxy to negotiate with RePlanetHab; resettling some of the refugees is turning into an absolute nightmare. Unfortunately, Uncle Luke and Aunt Mara aren't here either, but on the bright side, they're well underway with Kam and Tionne in establishing a new academy out on Ossus." She grinned. "And you should see how big Ben is now."

She turned and linked her arm through his, pulling him along the unfamiliar corridors. "I can't believe how long it's been," she murmured. "You'll have to tell me everything about your trip, I'm sure it was vastly more interesting than what's been going on around here. Jag and I were supposed to get dinner tonight, but you should come too and we can talk, he'll be delighted to see you again…"

"Jaina," he pulled her to a stop and steered her around to face him. "Slow down. I just landed. I haven't even spoken with any of the Masters, I need to arrange quarters for myself, get my bearings once more."

"Well okay, but-"

"And then," he continued gently, "I think I need about eighteen straight hours of sleep. So I'll tell you what- I'm going to go find Master Katarn or one of the others, figure out where I'm staying, get a message to mom and dad, and another one to Ossus to let everyone know that I'm here. Afterwards, if Jag's coming here to pick you up, I'd love to say hi- but if he's leaving in the morning, I'm not going to impose on your last night together."

Her lips quirked in a half-smile. "You're my twin brother and I haven't seen you in three years; it's really not an imposition, Jag will understand."

He smiled ruefully. "I'm sure he would; but he'll be gone tomorrow and I'll still be here. And you should take advantage of every possible moment the two of you have together." He bit his lip and looked down at the floor a moment before attempting a reassuring grin. "You never know how long it might be until you see each other again."

For a moment, she eyed him curiously, perhaps reading some of his somber thoughts. But she did not comment, and instead just nodded. "If you're sure."

"I am. I need the sleep anyway."

Drawing him into one more tight hug, she continued leading him towards the makeshift council chamber for the Masters.

With a barely suppressed, resigned sigh… he was back; and he was alone.

X-X-X-X

 _Six Weeks Later_

Life fell into a steady routine; Jaina resumed her work busting smuggling rings, but Han and Leia made it back to Coruscant ahead of schedule to see their son. Jacen even made it out to Ossus for a week-long visit with his aunt, uncle, and cousin, but the newly forming temple felt strange, foreign, and he suspected that he would never hold it as dear as he had the temple on Yavin 4.

Upon his return to Coruscant, he found himself filling in odd jobs, things that were overlooked during the bulk of the reconstruction, but things that were vital nonetheless- like organizing the Jedi archives. What had been preserved of them, anyway.

It was tedious, mind-numbing work- and therefore, it was perfect for him. In six weeks, he'd thought about Aeryn and Estel every day, wondered a thousand times what she thought of him for disappearing, whether she had guessed that it was not his choice to do so, that he would have remained there with her had the Celestials allowed it.

He missed everything about her though, and everything about the routine they had developed in his last two weeks with her.

The tedious work in the archives kept him distracted during the day, but he still thought about her every night as he drifted to sleep, and woke every morning with the wild thought that he was back in her childhood bedroom, waking up to the smell of her cooking breakfast for them.

On one of his more slow-going days cataloguing and copying data, Jacen was distracted by the teenage Jysella Horn, who was sitting at a computer terminal near him. Frustration was pouring off of her in the Force, and he was about to ask her what she was researching when she finally stood in frustration and came over to him first.

"Jacen, I need help."

"I'm no archivist, but I'll see what I can do."

"I'm looking for a planet that no one has ever heard of and that doesn't seem to exist _anywhere_ in the records."

He grinned. "Maybe the planet doesn't exist."

She shot him an annoyed look. "Maybe, but the Masters seem to feel that it should be here somewhere, or that it's at least a local name for a planet known to _us_ as something else."

"Could be tricky research, if that's the case," he murmured, pulling up a star chart. "What's the name of the planet?"

"Estel."

He choked on air; Jysella looked at him like he was crazy. "Estel?" he demanded, and she nodded suspiciously. "Why would… never mind," he jumped to his feet, completely ignored the proper protocols for closing down his system, and went hurriedly for the door. "Don't worry about that one," he called over his shoulder to the confused girl. "I'll get it."

At best, his pace would be considered a hurried walk as he dashed through corridors of the partially completed building and headed for the turbolift to take him up several levels to where the Masters Council usually met in an oversized conference room. He knew they were all there, meaning something was happening… meaning that he would be expected to formally request an audience, rather than bursting into the room unannounced.

 _Kriff that_.

He waved the door aside moments before he reached it and looked wildly around the room where a dozen-odd Masters were sitting around a circular table. Several looked up at him in surprise, but he paid them no mind as his eyes zeroed in on the one out-of-place figure directly opposite the door, looking small and pale and vulnerable, her eyes wide and… blank, confused… her golden hair hanging down in her face.

"Aeryn," he breathed.

She glanced up and her bright blue eyes tracked him as he came quickly across the table and crouched down in front of her, reaching for her hands. "Aeryn," he murmured, ignoring the confused looks of everyone else in the room, "what are you doing here?"

Corran Horn sat next to her- Jacen had, in retrospect, sort of muscled past him rather rudely. He cleared his throat quietly. "She doesn't seem to remember much of anything except her name and where she's from, Jacen."

It was like a cruel trick of fate. He stared at her and reached out to cup her cheek softly, as he had done just before they parted ways for, what he thought, was the last time. "Aeryn, do you know me?"

She blinked once, twice… a third time.

And then a slow smile spread across her face, the confusion lifted from her eyes, and she nodded. "Of course I know you, Jacen. How's your head?"

He let out a sort of gasping half-sob. "Still a Jedi," he assured her.

"Yes," she murmured, almost dreamily, "that's what they told me." She reached into her pocket and produced a slip of paper- not flimsi, but real paper. "Tyla wanted you to have this."

With trembling hands, he took it and unfolded it; written in a scrawling script, he read:

 _A Jedi must always be willing to accept sacrifice, Jacen Solo- but sometimes, that sacrifice is unnecessary._

Feeling tears welling in his eyes, he turned the paper over and read further:

 _Our race alone bears the punishment for our presumption, for our interference. The pain of detachment from our plane is born only by the Guides._

 _Aeryn Freeson is descended from an enslaved people; as a reprieve from their suffering, her forebears were granted passage and an ideal existence on the planet Estel, a planet born of the Force itself- a planet where they enjoy peace, prosperity… and free-will._

 _Aeryn Freeson has made her choice._

The tears flowed freely now as he pulled her to him in a fierce embrace. The assembled Masters had, by now, been left far behind in the happenings in the room, but the whole galaxy could have been watching his reunion with her and he would not have cared; not when, against all prospect of hope, he'd been granted the chance to see her again.

"I thought I'd lost you forever," he whispered brokenly against her. "I love you."

A slight sniffle betrayed her own tears, but her voice was even and sincere. "I love you, Jedi Jacen."

He laughed thickly and continued to hold her to him, unwilling to let go lest she be taken away from him again. And for a long time, they remained there, clutching each other desperately, even after the Masters had vacated the room- no clearer on what was happening, but aware enough to realize their presences were unneeded and unwanted.

Questions surged to the front of his mind but he suppressed them, simply reveled in her presence, in holding her once more. When they had both recovered from the shock, when he saw to her wellbeing, made sure she was fed and rested… then they could ask all the questions they wanted of each other.

After all- they had all the time in the galaxy.

 **FIN**

 **A/N:** Hope you enjoyed.


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